Publication Date:
2018-02-23
Description:
The oceanic biological pump is responsible for the important transfer of CO2-C as POC “Particulate
Organic Carbon” to the deep sea. It plays a decisive role in the Earth’s carbon cycle and significant effort
is spent to quantify its strength. In this study we used synchronized daily time-series data of surface
chlorophyll-a concentrations from the NASA’s MODIS satellite in combination with hourly to daily
observations from sea surface buoys and from an Internet Operated Vehicle (IOV) on the seafloor within
Barkley Canyon (Northeast Pacific) to investigate the importance of winter processes in the export of
fresh phytodetritus. The results indicate that phytoplankton pulses during winter can be as important
in POC transfer to depth as the pulses associated with spring and summer blooms. Short winter
phytoplankton pulses were observed to disappear from surface waters after low-pressure systems
affected the area. Pulses of chlorophyll reached the IOV, at 870 m depth on the canyon seafloor,
12–72 hours later. These observed short pulses of biological carbon production regularly observed in
the region from December to March have not been considered a significant component of the biological
pump when compared with the denser summer productivity blooms.
Repository Name:
EPIC Alfred Wegener Institut
Type:
Article
,
peerRev
Format:
application/pdf
